Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Bare walls, nothing is decorating it. I mean, our upstairs bathroom is decked out in M&Ms stuff. And by decked out, I mean shower curtain, small rug, soap dispenser, soap dish, and toothbrush holder. That's about as extravagant as it gets here.

We have a few things here and there, but nothing amazing. 6 pictures in the house on display, one in a location that just looks awkward. We have a clock. We have empty picture frames on display on a sofa table (that we got FOR FREE on Craigslist). We have our football player cake toppers made by my aunt-in-law, who is super amazing, from our wedding cake.

She baked it herself, words and all.

We have..A SPICE RACK! And..well..that's pretty much it. >.<

So, to remedy this, I grabbed a piece of scrap wood I made Kyle pick up from my mom and dad's house. They just moved and my dad made a new tool bench thing for himself. He's handy like that.

"What are you doing with all these scraps, dad?" - Me

"Ah, I gotta get them together and throw them away before your mom yells at me." - Dad

"Can I have them?" - Me

"If you WANT them. They're just scraps and I doubt you can do any--" - Dad

"KYLE! I need you to get these scraps for me!" - Me

It's been an ongoing joke that the pieces of wood are just going to end up in a bonfire this summer. Thanks, guys, for having faith in me.

And knowing what will probably happen with most of it.

So, I'm looking through the scraps and realizing that there's honestly not much I can do with what I have. A lot of it still has nails stuck in it and whatnot. It's pretty rough. But then I find a piece and sand it.

And then put it in my craft room and forget about it.

Sometime after that, I re-found it. And then crafty things happened.

I really like how the gold came out somewhat distressed (I only did one coat in the letters). Ontop, I have a grid drawn out for the husband. He's going to drill some holes in there for me (because I'm not allowed to touch his precious DeWalt drill) and I'm going to industrial strength glue some wire into the holes, alternating in height. Then, wrap the wires ontop and BAM. Picture holder.

But yeah, we'll see when we'll finally get the holes drilled and the wires done. It's a slow going process.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

There's still plenty of things I could/need to learn with knitting, and I DEFINITELY need to up my crochet abilities, and...there's a lot of things I want to do. It's easier than listing it out.

One thing I always admired was resin pendants. If you don't know what that is, do a search on Etsy or DeviantArt. They look like glass, almost, but it's actually a clear epoxy. You can embed things into it, color it, etc. They look amazing.

But then I started reading up on the stuff. The dangers of the fumes, getting it on things, and I have a house with kids and pets. I can't do things dangerous.

But I found this stuff called Easy Cast at Hobby Lobby. It was around $14. And then..well...

Now, if you're planning on trying resin, please read up on it. There's a ton of things to read about it on Craftster, or you could do a search about it. There are some precautions to take and there's different mixing ratios for each resin set. Mine is a 1:1 ratio.

So, I threw my fears aside! I was going to conquer the beast!

Fail. To avoid this, I learned that I needed to pour some resin, then lay my object (which happened to be a skull button, OMG HOW CUTE?!) and let the resin set. Then make up another mix of resin, pour some ontop, then add the glitter. *facepalm* Duh.

I finally *kinda* got the hang of it, though.

Once they're fully cured, you sand the excess off along the edges and (can) paint some clear glaze on it to give it a nice shine. You also have the option of buffing it and whatnot.

A lot of factors go into the proper curing of your resin, temperature being one of them. It's kind of insane how much goes into it, but I think the end result is worth it.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

I have a hard time finding potholders that I like/go with my kitchen. So, needing a craft, I decided to crochet. Again.

My tension is still a bit wonky (it's HP weekend on ABC Family, excuse my words please) but that'll even itself out with practice.

These were crocheted using Peaches N Creme 100% cotton (I small ball at WalMart will make 1, and it's a little less than $2). You don't want to use ANY acrylic yarn, because acrylic is plastic. Plastic + Heat = Melt.

Pattern found here. And quite honestly, I won't be paying for new potholders anymore, unless it's the supplies to make more of these. These are the BEST potholders you'll get. They're double thick (I'll admit, I struggled with the pattern as a beginner crocheter) so NO heat goes through these babies!

About Me

I'm a 20-something girl trapped between the necessity to grow up and desire to stay a kid forever. I'm a wife, mother, animal wrangler, crafter, chef, a jack of all trades, really.
Oh. And I'm a (non-legit) ninja.